MIAMI (WSVN) - While families in South Florida work to step up precautions, many of them are worried about their families in other countries.
There have been more than 180,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases across the world. But for one South Florida woman, it is Spain’s struggle containing the coronavirus that is deeply personal.
Tamara Oyarzabal’s worry stretches across the Atlantic from Miami, 4,400 miles away, to Madrid.
Oyarzabal said, “It’s my every waking hour I just spend thinking about them.”
Oyarzabal’s parents, Beatrice and Antonio, live in Spain’s capital city.
The couple, who are in their 80s, have severe symptoms of the coronavirus.
Oyarzabal said, “They were feeling fine one day and then the next, that night, they got really, really high fever.
I mean exaggeratedly high fever. Shortness of breath, weakness, fatigue, a lot of fatigue, a lot of weakness.”
Spain has been hard hit in recent days, with the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases spiking to more than 9,000.
More than 300 people have died, according to the Spanish Health Ministry.
The country now has the fourth highest infection numbers in the world, behind China, Italy and Iran.
Oyarzabal said, “The situation right now is very, very bad in Spain. People are on lockdown. The whole country is on lockdown.”
She added, “Well, in Madrid, the streets are empty. Everybody is in their houses, and people have a lot of anxiety.”
Although her parents have not been tested, Tamara said their doctor has told them to assume they have the virus.
She said, “Well, it’s very alarming because we don’t know where the end is. If somebody said to us, well, you know this is going to be two weeks, three weeks, four weeks, you have a timeline. We don’t know when this is going to end.”
Antonio Oyarzabal was the Spanish Ambassador to the United States in the 1990s under the Clinton administration.
His daughter here in South Florida hopes Americans are paying attention to what is happening in parts of Europe.
Oyarzabal said, “We do have a glimpse into the future, and that is to our great advantage, and we should act accordingly based on what we’re seeing is happening in Italy and in Spain. This doesn’t discriminate between ages, between social class, or where you live, or any other factor. It affects all humans alike.”
Tamara has four siblings who live in Madrid who have been keeping an eye on their parents.
Two of the siblings have shown symptoms of COVID-19.
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